1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a retractable lens system which can extend from and retract into a body of an optical instrument such as a camera using sensitive film or a digital camera using a CCD or CMOS image sensor. The present invention also relates to a camera which incorporates such a retractable lens system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The demand for miniaturization in compact cameras is ever increasing. Specifically, in cameras having a retractable photographing lens (retractable lens system) which is substantially fully retracted into a camera body when the camera is not in use, there has been a strong demand for a further reduction of the length of the retractable photographing lens when fully retracted. As a solution to such a demand, the assignee of the present invention has proposed a retractable lens system which is disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent publication 2003-315861. This retractable lens system is characterized in that a plurality of optical elements of the retractable lens system are positioned on a common optical axis to constitute a photographing optical system when the retractable lens system is in a ready-to-photograph state, and that at least one removable optical element of the plurality of optical elements is moved to a removed position outside of the common optical axis while the removable optical element and at least one element of the remaining elements of the plurality of optical elements are moved rearward when the retractable lens system changes from the ready-to-photograph state to a retracted state (accommodated state).